Facing your fears

That is exactly what Brandon did last night at his baseball game. I had told him earlier in the day that all he needed to do at his game was focus on swinging his bat as hard as he could. "Even if you are afraid of the ball, swing as hard as you can. You don't even have to try to hit the ball, just swing hard. If the ball hits the bat, it will go flying out into the field." I must have sounded like a broken record because I kept telling him, "Remember, the ball isn't going to hit you. You're going to hit the ball." I don't know if any of that helped, but he sure faced down his fear of the pitching machine last night like a champ! He made it to the batters box twice and hit 4 or 5 foul balls and 2 base hits. The second time he got up to bat he yelled, "Mommy! I'm not afraid of the ball!" from the batters box. He sure wasn't! He actually did a happy dance and spun around and around on the first base bag. Coach thought he did so great, he gave Brandon the game ball to take home. The boy was walking on air! He promptly put the ball on the shelf next to his other trophies. It is the one thing on that shelf that he's most proud of.